Worst U.S. Air: Bakersfield Calif.; Best: Honolulu, Santa Fe

04/28/2012 12:32 AM

04/28/2012 12:32 AM

Worst U.S. Air: Bakersfield Calif.; Best: Honolulu, Santa Fe

04/28/2012 12:32 AM

Noting that "air pollution kills," the American Lung Association released its annual list of the most and least polluted U.S. cities. Bakersfield, Calif., has the worst, Honolulu and Santa Fe the best air.

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April 27, 2011 -- Bakersfield, Calif., has wrested the "dirtiest U.S. air" title from Los Angeles, the American Lung Association (ALA) finds in its annual ranking of U.S. areas with the most and least air pollution.

The ALA ranks cities on three separate lists: most bouts of short-term particle pollution, most year-round particle pollution, and ozone pollution.

Honolulu and Santa Fe, N.M., are the only two U.S. cities to rank among the top 10 cleanest cities on all three lists. Bakersfield tops both the short- and long-term particle pollution list, while L.A. remains the worst city for ozone.

There's some good news. All the cities most polluted by ozone did better than they did last year, as did all but two of the 25 cities with the worst all-year particle pollution.

Improvements in the nation's air quality since 1980 have added five months to U.S. life expectancy, says Normal H. Edelman, MD, the ALA's chief medical officer.

But that's no cause for celebration, Edelman warns.

"Vast portions of our population are at risk of bad health or even death from unhealthy air," Edelman said at a news conference. "Over half of Americans continue to live in areas with bad air pollution -- in air dirty enough to shorten their lives."

It's not an abstract health threat. Particle pollution damages the lungs of healthy people -- the effect may be worse in the growing lungs of children, the fragile lungs of the elderly, and the already weakened lungs of people with asthma and COPD.

It doesn't take years for bad air to kill. The effects of air pollution are felt immediately. The effects are toxic not only to the lungs but to the heart as well.

The top 10 U.S. cities for short-term bursts of particle pollution are:

1. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.

2. Fresno-Madera, Calif.

3. Pittsburgh-New Castle, Pa.

4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.

5. Salt Lake City-Ogden-Clearfield, Utah

6. Provo-Orem, Utah

7. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.

8. Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, Ala.

9. (tie) Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.

9. (tie) Logan, Utah-Idaho

9. (tie) Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, Calif.-Nev.

The top 10 U.S. cities for ozone pollution are:

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.

2. Bakersfield-Delano, Calif.

3. Visalia-Porterville, Calif.

4. Fresno-Madera, Calif.

5. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, Calif.-Nev.

6. Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.

7. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.

8. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, Texas

9. Merced, Calif.

10. Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury, N.C.-S.C.

Top 10 U.S. Cities for Clean Air

The 10 U.S. cities with the least year-round particle pollution are:

1. Cheyenne, Wyoming

2. Santa Fe-Espanola, N.M.

3. Tucson, Ariz.

4. (tie) Great Falls, Mont.

4. (tie) Honolulu, Hawaii

6. Anchorage, Alaska

7. (tie) Albuquerque, N.M.

7. (tie) Amarillo, Texas

9. Redding, Calif.

10. Salinas, Calif.

The ALA did not rank cities on least short-term particle pollution or least ozone pollution, but did list cities with no unhealthful days of either kind of pollution. Only Honolulu and Santa Fe appear on all three lists.

There are air quality monitors in about 900 of the more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. The ALA grades each county on its air quality; the results can be found on the ALA's stateoftheair.org web site.

SOURCES:News release, American Lung Association.News teleconference, American Lung Association, April 26, 2011.American Lung Association, "The State of the Air 2011."